In reality, the number of likes were assigned by the researchers, with the participants informed of the situation after the study finished.

Lead author Lauren Sherman, a researcher from the UCLA's Children's Digital Media Centre, said: "When the teens saw their own photos with a large number of likes, we saw activity across a wide variety of regions in the brain.

"We showed the exact same photo with a lot of likes to half of the teens and to the other half with just a few likes."

The region found to be particularly active is called the nucleus accubens, which is parts of the brain's reward circuitry.

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